Mirror Girls
by Ryth76
Summary: Ty Lee had no identity among her sisters, not a twitch, smile, or blink. Not even her own face. And slowly she began to doubt her own name and sanity... Ty Lee-centric. One-shot.


**A/N: A lot of people griped about how idiotic and shallow Ty Lee's 'painful' backstory sounded, so I decided to write the worst case scenario for Ty Lee's history with her six identical sisters. This might not be horror, but I found the idea rather creepy xD. This is not the way identical siblings normally live. Identical siblings don't do everything exactly the same way and each person has their own lives.  
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Mirror Girls**

Seven of us walked out in a row and bowed to Father as he sat down after a long meeting. I stood with them like a shy sparrow. I flexed my wings… a little twitch of my nose as I fought a sneeze – and I hissed against the painful pinch on my shoulder, my voice echoing exactly six times. I heard Mother's scolding whisper as she ushered us out. One by one, the seven pieces of the same shattered mirror bid goodnight to the only two people with their own face.

As we got dressed, I wondered if it was my own face I saw in the mirror, or the face of the six girls standing with me. It seemed the faces are all blurred together into one, and I slowly began to fear I was alone with myself in my room. Surely it was too small for six energetic girls, let alone seven.

My sister, Ty Lee… No, that was _my _own name! How could I forget that? Who was the girl beside me? I can't tell even myself apart from my sisters. My hands shook as I undid my long braid. _Our _long braid. We moved in sync even without our Mother's critical eye, just as it had been drilled into us.

One of us was special. Which one, I no longer could remember. One was the first born who the rest of us lived merely to imitate to the letter. This seemed absurd. We were all treated equally so any assassins wouldn't pick out the true heir of the household. I doubted this to be anything more than my Mother's paranoia.

Without thinking, we crawled into bed with the same motions. I shuddered and lay awake in bed. I thought of my friends and the lives they led. Azula had one older brother and Mai was a single child. They would never doubt their own name.

I turned my head and saw myself looking back in fear. I looked the other way. The girl next to me turned her head. I looked back up at the ceiling, unwilling to accept the sign of my growing insanity. Even my sisters couldn't time their movements to mine so closely, could they? My world grew stale and gray around me as for the first time I doubted my own mind.

I covered my head with a blanket and struggled to sleep so I could finish this horrible nightmare. We were nothing like the four identical boys we watched during the circus our Mother took us to, just the other day. Ah... the circus! It had been the only fun thing we did with our parents, and even then none of us could move without the other. If I left to refresh myself, I would look back to see six more of myself trailing behind, looking behind themselves like rows of reflective glass.

I sat up and slid out of bed. I didn't dare look back for fear that there would be six clones of myself trailing behind me. I didn't take anything with me as I left our – or my – room. I climbed out the window and onto the tree branch outside.

As soon as my feet hit the ground, I ran like my life depended on it. I could hear my pants echoing exactly six times as I leapt and dodged through the streets. My shadow split beneath the harvest moon and I turned into a dark ally. I slipped and garbage fell over me. I saw six pairs of little feet standing over me. Freed from the spell, I lay breathless under the mound of rotting food until their identical footsteps died away.

I scanned the street with a cautious eye before making my way to the big tent. It was time to make an identity for myself, one without my six shadows. I was ready for my first solo flight.

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**A/N: Ty Lee... Ty Lee... no wonder she had attention issues. This might not seem to be the sort of thing that brings about attention starvation, but sometimes attention issues stem from a desperate need for a self-image and self-identity. Thus Ty Lee and her ten boyfriends.**


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